Media Resources

Share

Comment

Quantum entanglement is one of the more bizarre theories to come out of the study of quantum mechanics — so strange, in fact, that Albert Einstein famously referred to it as “spooky action at a distance.”

Essentially, entanglement involves two particles, each occupying multiple states at once — a condition referred to as superposition. For example, both particles may simultaneously spin clockwise and counterclockwise. But neither has a definite state until one is measured, causing the other particle to instantly assume a corresponding state. The resulting correlations between the particles are preserved, even if they reside on opposite ends of the universe.

But what enables particles to communicate instantaneously — and seemingly faster than the speed of light — over such vast distances? Earlier this year, physicists proposed an answer in the form of “wormholes,” or gravitational tunnels. The group showed that by creating two entangled black holes, then pulling them apart, they formed a wormhole — essentially a “shortcut” through the universe — connecting the distant black holes.

Now an MIT physicist has found that, looked at through the lens of string theory, the creation of two entangled quarks — the building blocks of matter — simultaneously gives rise to a wormhole connecting the pair.

The theoretical results bolster the relatively new and exciting idea that the laws of gravity holding together the universe may not be fundamental, but arise from something else: quantum entanglement.

Julian Sonner, a senior postdoc in MIT’s Laboratory for Nuclear Science and Center for Theoretical Physics, has published his results in the journal Physical Review Letters, where it appears together with a related paper by Kristan Jensen of the University of Victoria and Andreas Karch of the University of Washington.

The tangled web that is gravity

Ever since quantum mechanics was first proposed more than a century ago, the main challenge for physicists in the field has been to explain gravity in quantum-mechanical terms. While quantum mechanics works extremely well in describing interactions at a microscopic level, it fails to explain gravity — a fundamental concept of relativity, a theory proposed by Einstein to describe the macroscopic world. Thus, there appears to be a major barrier to reconciling quantum mechanics and general relativity; for years, physicists have tried to come up with a theory of quantum gravity to marry the two fields.

“There are some hard questions of quantum gravity we still don’t understand, and we’ve been banging our heads against these problems for a long time,” Sonner says. “We need to find the right inroads to understanding these questions.”

A theory of quantum gravity would suggest that classical gravity is not a fundamental concept, as Einstein first proposed, but rather emerges from a more basic, quantum-based phenomenon. In a macroscopic context, this would mean that the universe is shaped by something more fundamental than the forces of gravity.

This is where quantum entanglement could play a role. It might appear that the concept of entanglement — one of the most fundamental in quantum mechanics — is in direct conflict with general relativity: Two entangled particles, “communicating” across vast distances, would have to do so at speeds faster than that of light — a violation of the laws of physics, according to Einstein. It may therefore come as a surprise that using the concept of entanglement in order to build up space-time may be a major step toward reconciling the laws of quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Tunneling to the fifth dimension

In July, physicists Juan Maldacena of the Institute for Advanced Study and Leonard Susskind of Stanford University proposed a theoretical solution in the form of two entangled black holes. When the black holes were entangled, then pulled apart, the theorists found that what emerged was a wormhole — a tunnel through space-time that is thought to be held together by gravity. The idea seemed to suggest that, in the case of wormholes, gravity emerges from the more fundamental phenomenon of entangled black holes.

Following up on work by Jensen and Karch, Sonner has sought to tackle this idea at the level of quarks — subatomic building blocks of matter. To see what emerges from two entangled quarks, he first generated quarks using the Schwinger effect — a concept in quantum theory that enables one to create particles out of nothing. More precisely, the effect, also called “pair creation,” allows two particles to emerge from a vacuum, or soup of transient particles. Under an electric field, one can, as Sonner puts it, “catch a pair of particles” before they disappear back into the vacuum. Once extracted, these particles are considered entangled.

Sonner mapped the entangled quarks onto a four-dimensional space, considered a representation of space-time. In contrast, gravity is thought to exist in the next dimension as, according to Einstein’s laws, it acts to “bend” and shape space-time, thereby existing in the fifth dimension.

To see what geometry may emerge in the fifth dimension from entangled quarks in the fourth, Sonner employed holographic duality, a concept in string theory. While a hologram is a two-dimensional object, it contains all the information necessary to represent a three-dimensional view. Essentially, holographic duality is a way to derive a more complex dimension from the next lowest dimension.

Using holographic duality, Sonner derived the entangled quarks, and found that what emerged was a wormhole connecting the two, implying that the creation of quarks simultaneously creates a wormhole. More fundamentally, the results suggest that gravity may, in fact, emerge from entanglement. What’s more, the geometry, or bending, of the universe as described by classical gravity, may be a consequence of entanglement, such as that between pairs of particles strung together by tunneling wormholes.

“It’s the most basic representation yet that we have where entanglement gives rise to some sort of geometry,” Sonner says. “What happens if some of this entanglement is lost, and what happens to the geometry? There are many roads that can be pursued, and in that sense, this work can turn out to be very helpful.”

Comments

Philip Walker

December 9, 2013

If these particles can communicate over vast distances, why then are we not looking into this type thing for long range communication for programs like mars rover and the such? If it is instant then binary communication should be a snap... Anyone got any info around this?

Keith Cranston

December 9, 2013

I am new at this but my question is that can paticles be entangled in a star? If so, then would we then say capture a particle here on Earth from that star, and extract info from it that could say what the conditions were for say the other particle which might still be in the star they were created in? If this were so, this would be one cool way to know thousands to millions of years before a star went supernova or began to change.

Just a thought

Todd Biesiada

December 9, 2013

It surprised me to see this approach to entanglement. The scope in Sonner's work needs to be reconciled with both feet flat on the ground. Name 1 quark in nature that combined a chemical element with another?

fares

December 12, 2013

we can't use entanglment to send classical information because the result of the measurment (read the message ) is random , eventhough it's the same for entangled particles . entangled particles are in the same state but they choose their own state . but maybe there is a way in somehow to send quantum informations (qubits)

fares

December 12, 2013

there is an effect moves faster than light that means (according to Enstine ) we can creat such a way to send particles to our future (send a message to the future )!! time traveling isn't it ?!

Kang Huayue

December 16, 2013

I'm interested in physics but as a layman I never asked what exactly it is that causes entanglement. If this idea is true, greatest things are coming, a new epoch will be seen.

pogi acab

December 16, 2013

during the experiment, how big was this two blackholes, the dimension, how long was the count of time it lasted, what amount of energy was used, if this is applicable, how much energy would be used to make an actual wormhole large enough to send someone in the other dimension

Charles Stromeyer Jr.

December 23, 2013

This paper published in Nature Physics is just one of multiple different papers which show that nonlocal quantum entanglement must originate outside of or beyond 4D spacetime:

It might be interesting to think about nonlocal quantum entanglement in terms of the new "amplituhedron" found by Arkani-Hamed and Trnka at IAS in Princeton because this new approach to quantum field theory (QFT) shows how to derive locality from nonlocality:

Take the picture of this article, and take the two funnels and connect them too, the will make the torus of outer field where we can only see as far as the event horizon, while they are always coNnected through the inner "wormhole" we seek the answers looking at the field in which we cant see beyond that event horizon. Truth-revelations.com

Moshiya de broek

January 3, 2014

Wormhole and the picture shown are part of a bigger structure, the funnels on each side of the so called wormhole are the event horizon, when the funnels connect it becomes the torus. The internal and external, we seek to look beyond the event horizon while the answer is within.

Anita Henrikson

September 16, 2014

Because only spacetime can move faster than the speed of light, It seems reasonable to conceive a wormhole as a only feasible way to realize entanglement. But is the idea that gravity/geometry in n+1 dimensions emerges from entanglement in n dimensions a concrete example of AdS/CFT, a duality between quantum gravity in terms of string theory and quantum field theory?

Paolo Manzelli

October 2, 2014

QUANTUM CREATIVITY about entanglement on the fundamental level, in a quantum gravity theory. It esasy to suppose strong correlations happen between presently noninteracting particles that have interacted in the past near to the big-bang. So that it is plausible to suppose that entangled particle states have verified in that oldest times and that the‘nonlocal’ nature of quantum entanglled effect remain to connect simulaneously,though a gravity fluctuanting field the entire Universe.11

Paolo Manzelli In the critical condition near to big bang quantum entanglement my be an predominant quantum physics phenomena in wich quantim states of Energy and Matter cannot be described indipendently also during the process that the forming objects become separated . The Gravity Universal field born in that critical conditions in order that remain correlates the many body system of the Universe. Paolo Manzelli 2014/oct/02 https://www.facebook.com/hario...see also : http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2013...

David Sanders

November 21, 2014

What if we simply make the assumption that black holes in fact are the end points of a worm hole? Couldn't we then begin looking for pairs of black holes that seem to exhibit similar characteristics? For instance, one black hole whose xray jet seems to be emitting an amount of radiation that corresponds to the amount of matter that another black hole is consuming. This is almost certainly a naive view of things, but maybe it could lead to some interesting developments or further theories.

Shivay

March 27, 2015

Wed could just use instatons to explain Quantum Entanglement- and I already have a paper on this readydy, one which uses QFT instead of ST

At Least Is it possible make tests using these results on a computer program?

matheworman

December 31, 2015

"Quantum entanglement" is a mathematical fiction or an invented property o matter... Now scientist are trying to prove existence of such but always end-up misinterpreting the results of physical experiments... The only way two particles can have a common state is if they reside in common force field... Just like two compass needles in the Earth's magnetic field... What MIT people claim, is that the two needles communicate with each other to synchronize their state...